Jamie Handling

Mrs. Handling has been a high school English teacher since 1999. She received her Bachelor's degree in English - Creative Writing from California State University, Hayward. She received her teacher certification from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia. She also received her Master's degree Educational Leadership from Walden University.

She enjoys reading and writing young adult literature when she's not spending quality time with her husband and two amazing children.

Period 1: AP Language and Composition -

The purpose of this course is to help students “write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives” (The College Board AP English Course Description, May 2007, May 2008, p. 6). The course is organized according to the requirements and guidelines of the current AP English Course Description, and, therefore, students are expected to read critically, think analytically, and communicate clearly. Students in this course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent informal and formal writing, students develop their ability to work with language and text with a great awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composition abilities. Course readings feature expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts within but not limited to the following literary forms: short story, novel, essay, letter, speech/sermon, images, and poetry.

Students will use the writing process to compose analytical writing addressing different rhetorical modes. Additionally, students will learn how to examine and critique external sources to synthesize thesis based research. Students will prepare for the AP English Language and Composition Exam and may be granted advanced placement, college credit, or both as a result of satisfactory performance. The course is constructed in accordance with the guidelines describes in the AP English Course Description.

English Magazine (Creative Writing) is a beginning level survey of creative writing. Through the course of a semester, students will be experimenting with varied forms of poetry, short fiction, children’s fiction, screenplay writing, and more. Students will also research the steps of publication, as well as creating a publication for the school. By the end of each term, students will have complete portfolios of original work, a student created literary magazine, and a deeper understanding of the craft.

The goal of the Expository Reading and Writing Course is to prepare college-bound seniors for the literacy demands of higher education. Students in this course develop advanced proficiency in expository, analytical, and argumentative reading and writing. The design of the course presents a scaffolded process for helping students read, comprehend, and respond to nonfiction and literary texts. Modules also provide instruction in research methods and documentation conventions. Students will be expected to increase their awareness of the rhetorical strategies employed by authors and to apply those strategies to their own writing. They will read closely to examine the relationship between an author's argument or theme and his or her audience and purpose; to analyze the impact of structural and rhetorical strategies; and to examine the social, political, and philosophical assumptions that underlie the text. By the end of the course, students will be expected to use this process independently when reading unfamiliar texts and writing in response to them.

- adapted from UC English Course Proposal for the CSU Expository Reading and Writing Course